Do you have more marathons or PhDs?
I’ve completed eight marathons and have five doctorates, almost written a sixth.
A technical draw, would you say?
They win the Sanfermines bullfights.
How many cows?
More than fifty
More than fifty!
All ran in Pamplona, ??from the age of 16: look at this photo…
Some young people in front of some brats…
Los divinos, me on the horns: it’s 1964.
I was 20 years old, and without fear?
“Are you really going to run?”, my father had asked me the night before. I had it in my blood. I confirmed to him that I would run.
And what did his father say to him?
“Then run close to it!”. So I did, always close to the bull. This is a religion.
Nothing ever happened to him?
Nothing. More dangerous was running in front of the grays in Plaça Universitat, at the age of 18. Running in a crowd has its technique.
Which is?
Bumper cuffs, right angle elbows, nape eyes. And… to run!
And be navarric.
Since the 10th century, Navarre has been the main nation of Spain. We are stubborn, yes.
You have to be to run marathons.
I started with some Victoria thighs, there was no material in the seventies. But few pleasures compare to crossing the finish line.
Was it well positioned?
Always among those in the middle.
He says it with pride.
I am more proud to have been on the board of the Spanish Sports Club. And another great pride is having presided over the Catalònia bookshop and the Selecta publishing house.
In Catalonia I bought many books.
We hid banned political books, Ruedo Ibérico, in the seventies… Books, another passion: I had 17,000 volumes, and I have kept 9,000, due to lack of space.
Readings for your doctoral theses.
And for taste, like this bound collection of Carline works, or these books about Caganers. ..
Caganers, he says?
With years, patience and enthusiasm I have assembled an important collection of caganers, one of the largest, with two thousand figurines!
You never cease to amaze me!
They represent our connection with the earth, its fertility. Smelly, the scholar Joan Amades never wrote the word “caganer”.
Oh, and what was the name delcaganer?
“Lord who takes care of his needs”. The figurine made its debut in the 18th century in a Christmas nativity scene in a Catalan farmhouse… and in the following centuries it spread.
What will you do with this collection of yours?
Donate it to the Camilo José Cela Foundation, to Padrón, the seva vila natal.
He was very scatological: he would love it!
On one wall there hangs his collection of toilet lids: the cagane rs collection will look great on the front wall.
I see here a thesis of his… on Cela!
Yes, it corresponds to one of my five doctorates. I have a PhD in Literature for this thesis: The last two novels of Camilo José Cela’s Galician cycle: ‘La cruz de San Andrés’ and ‘Madera de boj’.
Phew, I tried to read La cruz de San Andrés and it fell out of my hands.
I don’t blame him. It was a remarkable text in its genesis, with the mediation of several people, as I detail in detail in my doctoral thesis.
Explain, explain…
Remember that this dense novel was composed in just six months.
Doctor of Literature… and what else?
And a doctor in Law, and a doctor in Economics, and a doctor in History, and a doctor in Humanities, and soon a doctor in Ethnology…
Doctor of Law, with which thesis?
The governing bodies of savings banks. I worked for two decades in the legal department of Caixa Catalunya. I mediated the purchase of the Quarry!
Doctor of Economics for…
Concepts, ideas and economic content in ‘El Quixot’. Cervantes was a tax collector. Every night I pick up Don Quixote, open it and read three or four pages at random, and then go to sleep!
Doctor in History for…
The archive of the House of La Canicouba de Tui: it is a pazo from 1547 that I inherited from my late wife, Julia García-Valdecasas, with an archive of 18,000 documents and collections of old books.
Doctor of Humanities for…
Saint Francis Xavier, life, mission and devotion: patron saint of Navarre, founder of the Jesuits, I was trained in one of his schools. I have 1,221 books on him.
And he will be a doctor in Ethnology for…
The cultural importance of nativity scenes. Special analysis of the figure of the caganer.
